Hello and welcome,
Some of my long-time readers may remember one of my earliest reviews was on the last Spongebob movie (Sponge out of water). Without repeating myself too much, I am or was a big Spongebob fan, but somewhere in the late 2000’s I gradually lost interest (at least in the new ones that is), with that out of the way let's begin.
Background
To be honest, I don’t have much in terms of background for this movie but it will give me time to talk about Paramount’s odd release strategy.
This movie was supposed to be released in May of last year but was obviously pushed back because of the little thing called the pandemic. Somewhere between its original release date and its new one in August Paramount decided to cancel the theatrical release and decided to go PVOD (premium video on demand). It was, however, still released theatrically in Canada in August then it was sold to Netflix internationally and Netflix released it around November. Between the Canadian box office and the Netflix sale, the movie turned a profit for Paramount. We in the U.S. finally got the movie this month and we have a choice of either paying $20 for a 48-hour rental or just subscribing to Paramount Plus. Paramount’s release strategy is the equivalent of throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks (On a side note, have any of you reading this decided to pay $20 instead of subscribing to Paramount Plus for almost half the price).
Plot
King Poseidon is using snail slime to make his face look younger but all the snails are running out of slime. King Poseidon then issues a decree that anyone that can get him a snail will be given a reward. Plankton sells Gary to King Poseidon as a way to get rid of Spongebob so he can get the Krabby Patty formula. Spongebob and Patrick go on a mission to save Gary.
Opinion
Let’s start with the positive. The animation in CGI takes a little bit to get used to (at least for me), but they have managed to translate the 2D characters to CGI fairly well which is a lot more than I can say about some other movies. Obviously, the original voice cast does an excellent job as usual and the newcomers do a good job. The humor can be a little hit-or-miss but when they hit they hit hard.
Now to the negative. It is becoming apparent that almost every time I watch a new Spongebob that the franchise is running out of steam and this movie is, unfortunately, no exception. For example, the plot for this movie seems like a rehash of the plot for the first movie (The Spongebob Movie). Now granted there are differences throughout and this movie does break from the similarities in the third act, where surprisingly it gets a little bit better. This movie is a clear advertisement for the Kamp Koral spinoff show, where the characters meet at summer camp as children. This brings me to another minor criticism and that is there are obvious continuity errors such as completely rewriting how the characters met and having the King of the Seagoing from Roman mythology (Neptune) to Greek mythology (Poseidon).
Overall this movie is just okay. If you are a Spongebob fan, it might be worth watching at least once. My rating is 3 out of 5 stars. I would also like to point out that Paramount Plus is also streaming all of the Spongebob episodes which in my opinion is worth more of your time (depending on what season you watch of course).
Goodnight, and Bee Happy!™
Mr.Bee
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